Linson adaptation nabs deals

'What' sales closed for France, Germany

The Europeans love a satire on Hollywood, which enables them to indulge simultaneously their obsession with and their contempt for the hoopla of Tinseltown.

“What Just Happened,” Barry Levinson’s upcoming movie based on Art Linson’s no-holds-barred comic memoir of life as a Hollywood producer, has proved one of the hottest projects in Berlin’s EFM.

2929 Intl. has closed pre-sales with TF1 in France and TeleMunchen in Germany, to go with deals signed just prior to Berlin with Medusa in Italy and Manga in Spain. Prexy Shebnem Askin expects to seal Latin America and a host of other smaller territories in the next few days.

Pic, set to shoot in March, stars Robert de Niro as a Linson-esque producer, along with Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro and Kristen Stewart. Some of the stars, including Penn, will be playing themselves.

Project is being produced by Linson, de Niro and his partner Jane Rosenthal of Tribeca Prods, with Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban’s 2929 Prods putting up the finance.

Linson’s book “What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Frontline” caused a stir in Hollywood when it was published in 2002, lifting the lids on the tensions and personalities involved in making several of Linson’s projects.